Trick or Treat

First of all, I must say something about where we live. We live on a cul-de-sac. And it is the greatest thing ever! We love our neighbors. We love that the kids can play in the street because usually the only cars that come into the cul-de-sac are those of people who live here. We love that we know our neighbors fairly well because we all stand out on the street and yak while the kids play around us. We love that our neighbors feel like they can call us when they need to borrow some wood glue for a school project they are still working on with their kid at 10 pm. And we can call them when we are an egg short in the middle of making cookies. We feel a great sense of community, and yes, we love it!

So what does this have to do with Halloween? Well, every year, our cul-de-sac starts celebrating Halloween the weekend before the holiday. We have an annual pumpkin carving party and pot-luck in the driveway of one of our neighbors. It is REALLY fun and the kids have a blast. So here are the pictures from this year's party.

Seth and one of his buddies from across the street.

Aleah working hard on her dragon design pumpkin.

Josh decided to get the hired help to work on his pumpkin.

And he was very pleased with the results.

Here are all the kids in the hood with their
finished (or mostly finished) products.

Seth and Aleah didn't quite finish their carvings,
so they worked on them for FHE the next day.

Anna pretty much missed out on the whole carving thing,
so we let her paint her mini pumpkin.

Unfortunately, due to user error, we had camera issues and we were not able to get pictures of the pumpkin masterpieces Seth and Aleah created in their original form. Luckily, we resolved those issues by Halloween. But unluckily, the pumpkins got mighty moldy – which happens when you live where it is still 80 degrees in October. But, we figured that moldy pumpkins were scary and therefore fit in with the Halloween theme. So we left them on the porch as decoration. (Yes, that black junk is mold.) Josh informed me every day that those pumpkins were starting to DECAY! "Decay" is Josh's new favorite topic which he learned about from "Sid, the Science Kid" on PBS. He is very interested in knowing what does and what does not decay. "Do cars decay?" "Do trees decay?" "Do teeth decay?"

Here are the kids on Halloween, ready to make the rounds. Seth is Zorro, Aleah is Morticia Addams, Josh is Buzz Lightyear, and Anna was a little "50's" girl. After getting everyone ready, we headed over to the church for a quick round of "Trunk or Treat".

Then we headed over to our friends, the Kings, for a yummy chili and soup dinner. There were lots of kids there ready to hit the pavement.

We were glad to go begging for candy with our friends, the Scotts. And believe me, we got enough candy to last a VERY long time. Seth and Aleah were especially happy to hang out with their friends Wynton and Brin.

Buzz enjoyed making the rounds. When Josh had his Buzz Lightyear costume on, he refered to himself as "Buzz" in the third person. "Buzz really likes candy." "Buzz's favorite food is cake." "Buzz's tummy is starting to hurt." Thankfully, Buzz's stomach felt much better after some milk and toast.

Anna didn't really know what to think of the whole thing. But she was happy to fill her bag with candy. I think she was mostly happy about the bag. Who wouldn't want a giant pumpkin purse?

Here is Dalen in his biker costume. I told him he needed a Harley Davidson T-shirt to complete the outfit. He told me he just needed the Harley. (Like the ponytail?)

And this is me.

I find Halloween to be fairly stressful. The last few years it has included an awful lot of rushing. And by 8:00, I have usually had enough and I am ready to call it quits. I told the family that this year I would try not to yell at them to STOP tricking or treating and JUST GO HOME. But Seth said that was part of what makes Halloween scary. I love that kid! And since I didn't want to disappoint him, around 8:30 or so I did finally yell at them to STOP! We couldn't stay out too late - Seth had a 9:00 soccer game the next morning.

"Then the Whos, young and old, [they'd head home] to a feast. And they'd feast! And they'd feast! And they'd FEAST! FEAST! FEAST! FEAST!"

Hope your Halloween was great!